THE SECOND WORLD WAR(1939-1945)

Almudena

CorralesSocial Studies

D-Day Landing Craft, Robert Capa

“It is one thing to learn about history books, and quite another thing to experience it oneself. That is what I wanted to remind you of just now when I likened a glimpse into the past of mankind to the view seen from an aeroplane flying at a great hight […]

In the last chapter I told you about the terrible World War of 1914-18. Although I lived through it, I was only nine years old when it ended. So when I wrote about it still had to rely on books.

In my finally chapter I would like to tell you a little about what I actually did experience. The more I think about it, the stranger it seems. The world is now so utterly different from what it was in 1918, and yet so many of the changes that occured happened so imperceptibly that we now take them completely for granted.

When I was a boy there were no television, no computers, no space flights and no atomic energy. .[…]

[…] I am reluctant to name them, but everyone will know that the one I have most in mind is Adolf Hitler. Hitler had been a soldier in the First World War, and he too remained convinced that, had it not been for the supposed deception, the

“ German army would never have been defeated. But he didn’t just blame Wilson. In his eyes, the enemy’s propaganda had been crucial in persuading the Germans and Austrians at home to abandon the soldiers at the front to their fate. Hitler was therefore determined to trump the enemy in the art of propaganda. He was a brilliant popular orator and drew huge crowds. He knew there was no better way to incite a mob to action than to give them a scapegoat, someone they could blame for their suffering , and he found one in the Jews.

[…] But even though I come from a Jewish family myself, it never enetered my head that such horrors might be repeated in my own lifetime.

I myself saw Hitler’s brown-shirts supporters beating up Jewish students at Vienna University, and when I was writing this book, Hitler had already seized power in Germany. It seemed only a matter of time before the Austrian government would also fall, so I was lucky to be invited to England just in time, before Hitler’s troops marched into Austria in March 1938. After that, as in Germany, anyone who greeted someone with a simple ‘Good morning’ and not a ‘Heil Hitler!’ was taken a very grave risk.

“In this type of situation it soon becomes all too clear that in the eyes of the supporters of this sort of movement, there is only one sin, disloyalty to the Führer, or leader, and only one virtue, absolute obedience. To bring victory closer every order had to be obeyed, even if it ran counter to the laws of humanity. Of course, similar things have happened at earlier times in history, and I have described many of them in this book – for example, when I wrote about Muhammad’s first disciples. The Jesuits, too, were said to place obedience above allelse. I also touched briefly on the victory of the Communists in Russia under Lenin, and there, too, there were convinced Communists who would not tolerate any apponents. Their ruthlessness in the pursuit of their goals knew no bounds, and millions died as a result.

In the years that followed the First World War, tolerance also vanished in Germany, Italy and Japan. The politicians of those countries told their fellow countrymen that they had been cheated when the world was shared out, and they too had the right to rule over other peoples. The Italians were remind of their ancient Roman ancestry, the Japanese of their warriors, and the Germans of the old Germanic tribes, of Charlemagne and Frederick the Great. […]

“Then, when a serious economic crisis in Germany condemned vast numbers of people to unemployment, war seemed the simplest way out. The unemployment would become soldiers or work in the armaments factories, and in this way the hateful treaties of Versailles and St. Germain would be wiped off the face of the earth. Not only that, but the Western democratic countries – France, Britain and the United States- had become so softened by years of peace, or so it was thought, that hey were hardly likely to defend themselves. Certainly no one there wanted a war, and every effort was made to avoid giving Hitler an excuse to bring calamity down on the world. But, sadly, a pretext can always be found. So on the first day of September in 1939, the German army marched into Poland.

[…] In December 1941, the japanese attacked the American fleet at anchor in Pearl Harbor and virtually destroyed it, and Hitler took it upon himself to declare war on the United Sates, and when, in the autumn of 1942, the German troops were beaten back in North Africa and defeated by the Russian in January 1943 outside Satlingrad, and when the German air force- the Luftwaffe- proved powerless, it became clear that it takes more than fine words and fanfares to win a war. […]

When Winston Churchill became prime minister in England, he said: ‘I can promise nothing but blood, sweat and tears’

• On 1 September 1939 Germany invaded Poland from the west and on 15 September Russia invaded from the east.

• Poland was swiftly defeated by the German tactics of Blitzkrieg (lightning war).• WHY?

• Quick victories would get people behind the war effort.

• Germany’s economy could not support long-drawn out campaigns.

• This was followed by the Phoney War (winter 1939-1940). Each side waiting for the other to make a move.• Hitler was confident that he could get

Britain and France to agree to a peace deal with him rather than continue the war.

1. POLAND DEFEATED

2. GERMAN SUCCESSES IN THE WEST

• In April 1940 Germany, using Blitzkreig tactics, invaded Denmark and Norway.

• Norway was especially important to Hitler, since it would provide naval bases.

• On 10 May German troops attacked Holland, Belgium and France using Blitskrieg tactics.

Britain gets a new war leader

• British attempts to help Norway failed and Prime Minister Chamberlain was replaced by Winston Churchill.

• Although Dunkirk was a defeat for the Allies , Churchill used for propaganda purposes to boost morale led to the phrase: “Dunkirk spirit”.

Reasons for German success

• Blitzkrieg tactics.

• Neither Britain nor France was ready to intervene with a large number of troops to help Poland.

• Norwegian forces were not mobilised and Norwegian Nazis, led by Quisling, helped the invaders.

• By invading France through Belgium the German army by-passed the French defences of the Maginot Line which had been built along the French-German border.

4. THE SURVIVAL OF BRITAIN

• Hitler planned to invade Britain (Operation Sealion): large fleets of barges carrying troops across the English Channel.

• July-September 1940 the two airforces fought for control of the skies in the Battle of Britain.

• The Luftwaffe tried different tactics:

• Bombing convoys airfields

factories large cities

• German losses were heavier than British Germans- 1,389 planes – British-792 planes

The reasons for the victory of the RAF

• The British Spitfires and Hurricanes were more manoeuvrable than German Messerschmidts.

• The Germans failed to bomb the British radar stations which told the RAF where and when German attacks were coming.

• Germans did not realise how close to defeat the RAF was in September.

• British factories produced new planes more quickly than German factories.

• The skill and bravery of the British pilots surpassed that of the Germans.

RAF strengths

• The RAF was led by Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowing. He introduced command and communication systems.

• Dowing was also a supporter of radar. Radar worked by transmitting radio waves that bounced back off approaching enemy aircraft.

• The main RAF fighter planes – Spitfires and Hurricanes-were more than a match for the Luftwaffe.

• RAF fighters were organised into regions so that they could meet attacks quickly.

• RAF pilots who baled out over Britain could return to duty.

Luftwaffe weaknesses

• Hermann Goering led the Luftwaffe. He did not really understand how modern air warfare worked.

• The Luftwaffe had a lot of aircraft but not enough of the right type of fighting aircraft.

• German fighters only had enough fuel on board to guarantee them 30 minutes flying time over Britain.

• Luftwaffe bombers were too small.

• German intelligence was poor.

• Luftwaffe pilots who baled out over Britain became prisioners of war.

5. THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC

• Britain depended on food, oil ans raw materials from the USA.

• Germans used U-Boats and calculated that if they sank 150 merchant ships every month for a year, Britain would have to surrender.

• Churchill wrote: ‘The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril’.

• Later in 1943, however, the success of the U-boats declined.

Reasons for the British victory

• Merchant ships sailed in convoys protected by warships.

• British warships and aircfat used radar to tell them where the submarines where.

• The Allies were building merchant ships quickly.

6. THE WAR SPREADS

Greece

• September 1940 Mussolini invaded Greece but italian forces where driven back. Both Hitler and the Allies sent troops.

• The Allies were overrun and retreated to the island of Crete which captured by German parachutists in June 1940.

Africa

• September 1940 Mussolini also invaded Egypt.

• British, Indian, Australian and New Zealand troops pushed the Italians out of Egypt.

• Rommel, one of the best Hitler’s generals pushed the Allied armies deep into Egypt, threatening the Suez Canal.

• The Battle of El Alamein, October 1942, was the turning point: Montgomery’s Eighth Army defeated Rommel.

• 1943, the Allies invaded Italy from North Africa.

7. OPERATION BARBAROSSA, 1941

“It was the Red Army which tore the heart out of the German army”

Churchill said

• Hitler’s ultimate dream was to smash the USSR and carve out an empire for his master race of Germans.

• Although Hitler had signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Stalin in 1939 he always planned to invade Russia.

WHAT DID HE WANT?

• Lebensraum for the German people.

• To destroy communism.

• Resources such as wheat in the Ukraine and oil in the Caucasus.

By summer of 1941, Hitler felt that the time was right and he launched Operation Barbarossa:

• 3 million German soldiers in 153 divisions poured across the frontier into the USSR.

• Blitzkrieg against the Red Army had devastating effects.

• September 1941, Leningrand was under siege. They controlled Ukraine and they also reached Crimea.

• In the centre of Russia, the Germans almost reached Moscow, and Stalin seriously considered surrendering.

• The Red Army used the winter of 1941-1942 to reorganise. In one of the most extraordinary turnabouts in history, USSR survived and played the key role in the defeat of Hitler.

Reasons for the German defeat in Russia:

1. The Allied offensive in Greece held up the German invasion of

Russia. This meant that when the Germans did attack (in june) the

dreadful Russian winter was not far off.

2. The Germans found it difficult to keep their armies supplied over

such vast distances. This was made harder by the ‘scorched earth!

Policy of the Russians (destroying everything as they retreated).

3. The harsh winter of 1941 halted the German advance.

4. The Russian armies and the Russian people showed stubborn

resistance.

8. AMERICA AND THE WAR WITH JAPAN

Causes of the war with Japan

Japanese expansion

• Japan had already conquered Manchuria and by 1941 had invaded deep into China.

• Japan needed supplies of coal, oil, tin and other raw materials.

• America was very worried about Japanese advances in these areas.

• Japanese leaders admired dictators like Hitler and in 1936 signed an agreement with him.

What was the reaction of America?

• The USA had important trading links with China.

• America demanded that Japan withdraw from China and Indo-China.

• America stopped trading with Japan and this was particulary serious for Japan beacuse it depended on America for the 80% of its oil.

Pearl Harbor December 1941

• Japan decided to launch a surprise attack on the US naval base in Hawaii.

• If the US navy in the Pacific could be destroyed, Japan could conquer the whole of the Pacific and South-East Asia.

• In the attack most of the US fleet and 120 aircraft were destroyed, and 2,400 Americans were killed.

Pearl Harbor to Midway

• Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941.

• The only confort for the US navy was that its aircarft carries were not in Pearl Harbor at the time of the attack.

• This was a decisive error.

• The US carrier comander, Admiral Halsey, was able to use these carries throughout 1942, while US shipyards frantically constructed new ships, especially carries.

• The decisive battle came at Midway in May 1942 when the Americans destroyed four japanese carries. Without air protection the Japanese navy was hopelessly vulnerable and Japan could not match the output of the USA’s shipyards and aircraft factories.

9. THE DEFEAT OF GERMANY

By June 1944 Britain and France were ready to launch their offensive in Europe. This was now possible because of the following factors:

• Germany had suffered massive losses in Russia.

• In July 1943 British and American troops had landed in Italy. By April 1945 Italy had fallen.

• Over 3 million British, Canadian and American troops were in southern Britain ready to invade France.

• The Allied bombing campaign againts Germany:

• One of the most controversial aspects of the war.• Sir Arthur Harris (Head of the RAF) and Churchill

thought that bombing would demoralise the German population as well as destroy vital industries, rail links and resources such as coal mines.

• When Roosvelt and Churchill met in January 1943, they agreed that their forces would not be ready to attack Europe until 1944.

• They were conscious that Stalin was pressuring them to equal the enormous efforts of the USSR against Germany.

• They decided that the bombing campaign would be intensified and that it would be focused on targets in Germany.

• Berlin was bombed regularly from 1943 to 1945.

10. D-DAY 6 JUNE 1944

• The landings were on five different beaches on a 60-mile strech of the Normandy coast.

• Within three weeks northen France had been liberated. On 25 August, Paris fell.

• By September both France and Belgium had been freed from German control.

• In December the Germans launched a counter-attack but the Allies recovered. Hitler had gambled everything on this attack: he lost 250,000 men and 600 tanks.

• By April 1945 the Allies were entering Germany. However, the Russians, attacking from the east, reached Berlin first.

• Hitler shot himself on 30 April and Germany surrendered on 7 May 1945.

11. The defeat of Japan

• The conflict between the Allies and Japan was fought over a vast territory.

• Although the Japanese were being pushed back in 1943 and 1944, the Allied losses were huge.

• The Japanese fought fanatically for each island in the Pacific and each piece of territory in China, Burma and India.

• By summer 1945, the USA was confident of winning the war eventually.

• In 1944-1945 America won the Philippines back. Only Japan was left.

• An international team of scientists in the USA, working on what was known as the Manhattan Project, had just perfected the wolrd’s first nuclear bomb. It was decision time for Truman.

• In August a nuclear bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, and a few days later another one in Nagasaki.

• On 14 August 1945 Japa surrendered.